This invention relates to beverage dispensing devices, and in particular to a draft beer dispenser.
The occasional lapses of bartenders who spill substantial quantities of beer or neglect to collect for all the beer they have served have led in recent years to increasing use of automatic dispensing devices. These devices dispense a preselected portion of beer and then shut off the flow automatically. Generally, they consist of a specially modified beer faucet including a solenoid which operates a modified valve structure in the faucet and a push-button switch which activates the solenoid. The systems also include an electronics box mounted under the bar. This box includes a timing circuit which controls the length of time the solenoid holds the valve open and a counter which records the number of times a portion of beer is drawn. Because modern beer tapping equipment maintains both temperature and pressure within close tolerances, a timing circuit is adequate to provide reasonably reproducible portion control.
Presently known automatic beer dispensing systems have still not met with a great deal of commercial success. In large part, their lack of success has been due to the fact that the automatic faucet is far more difficult to clean than a manually operated one, and has numerous parts which are easily corroded. Consequently, their failure rate has been high, even over a relatively short lifetime. When the automatic faucet fails, it not only is liable to waste a good deal of beer before the line is shut off, but also renders the faucet useless until a new faucet can be obtained and attached. Thus, not only beer, but sales and customer goodwill are lost. They are also lost whenever a failure in the electrical system of the automatic dispenser prevents it from operating. The systems have also suffered from being rather inconvenient for the bartender, who must use both hands for holding the glass and pressing the button. Despite careful control of temperature and pressure, the amount of beer poured, and in particular the amount of head, varies, and customers sometimes feel slighted by the amount of beer an automatic dispenser gives them.